Monday Musings...
As a former U.S. Treasury Department employee, I have to say everyone caught a break THIS year in being able to file TODAY, instead of the "traditional" 15 April.
Wow - April 15 - the same day the Titanic sank - talk about your major shipwrecks...
I smell some IRONY at work here.
A little known federal "holiday" (except for you in the D.C. area) called Emancipation Day (the day the slaves were set free in our nation's capital) made this late filing possible.
With that said, let's move along into the week, fair enough?
*** Yesterday was PALM SUNDAY, which begins the holiest week in the Judeo-Christian year.

Now, I remember what Palm Sunday USED to mean to me, aside from the Biblical references.
I was tasked with picking up the symbolic palm frons from the nearby florist on Saturday, and set them out at the back of our church for the congregation to pick up the next day either before or after service.
There was not a year I recall that Mom didn't have palm in our house, tucked nicely behind the 3-foot wide picture of the Last Supper we had hanging over the sofa.
The picture was actually one of those "paint-by-number" gigs that Mom loved to do, and I remember her talking the better part of a few months to complete it. It had like 30-40 some odd paints to use, and she was very meticulous in staying inside the lines.
After she finished it, you could barely tell it was a "do--it-yourself" painting, unless you got right up on top of it. She even got it a real nice frame...must have cost her close to TEN bucks (back then, that was a lot for a frame that size).
Mom grew up on a farm near Hummellstown, PA, and when it comes to being godly folk, farm people usually are near the top of the list.
That didn't mean that Mom couldn't swear with the best of them (when she had a mind to, that is), but there were some words she NEVER used, and you know what those were (because we hear them all too frequently these days).
The guys at my Dad's workplace even gave her a nickname...they called her the 28TH DIVISION...!
Standing only 5 feet tall, she WAS a force to be reckoned with. Growing up, I found that much out all by myself.
But Mom always made sure that CHURCH was on the agenda every Sunday. And PALM Sunday (along with Easter) was a BIG DEAL. Now, I still believe in what the meaning is BEHIND Palm Sunday...
I pretty much have to if I want to maintain my sanity in this day and age, and especially in THIS neighborhood in THIS city.
Like I say...it's like being Daniel in the Lion's Den most days around here, and every one of the "beasts" is licking it's chops.
On the "off" days, it's more like being JOB from the Old Testament.
And that means you pretty much feel like you can't catch a break, no matter how many buckets you have and how large they are.
I guess that's where one's FAITH comes in. And Lord knows that all too often THAT keeps me going.
Meanwhile, elsewhere out and about...
*** Stories like THIS always make me smile, and I'll explain why below the link (and after you read the article): http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20110417/BIZ/304179936/-1/BIZ09
Okay, we're talking URBAN retail here, gang...and NOT the kind you see in abundance elsewhere other than in our ghettohhod, because we don't REALLY have all that much to speak of.
So what can you really DO but shop everywhere else?
And WHY?
(( Andi Udris already knows the formula. The president of the Fort Wayne-Allen County Economic Development Alliance said while Marshalls’ decision to locate in an urban area of the city is encouraging, similar moves may be hard to come by.
"We’re in that kind of mid-range size for a city, and we never seem to fit the mold retailers want for these new concepts," he said. "We’d like to see more downtown. Pharmacies, grocery stores and things like that, but we’re kind of pigeonholed." ))
Andi...you're NOT pigeon-holed...you COULD (re) create solid retail down here, but you have to consider the main reason WHY you have LOST close to ONE HUNDRED BUSINESSES in the first place:
It's the CRIME, stupid...!!!

I have stated over and over again that rising CRIME (and not dropping crime, as some erroneously maintain) is the NUMBER ONE REASON why businesses shy AWAY from the SOUTH side of town.
Cripes, a BLIND person could see that much (and usually hear it, too).
Sure, we have Menards...and a WalMart (lots of shoplifting calls to "Wally World" ), and a K-Mart...and that's about IT for any big box stand alones OR mall-type stores. And yes, we have a few outdoor strip locations (like Southgate), but the number of police calls to THOSE places is typical of a locale rife with crime.
There is not ONE day that you DON'T have at least ONE call to some store at Southgate. I've listed SO many businesses that up and left, rather than continue to take hits in their bottom line (and place employees and patrons alike at risk from gun-toting thugs who roam the area daily).
And, as I also say...WHO can blame them? Only fools fight in burning houses, and what we have down HERE is a burning house, thanks to all those wonderful entitlements and lazy-ass creatures who live to recoup some perverse form of "reparations" from everyone else.
Simple as that.
Get RID of the crime (and the criminals behind it all), and businesses WILL return...doesn't get any more BASIC than that, does it? Then, good people will also return to the area, and this part of Fort Wayne will again be worth the ground it's sitting upon.
*** That storm system that blew up from (and through) MS and continued up into NC was something else. I read where at least 45 people lost their lives due to that bad weather, and my heart goes out to those families.
I know we were on the outskirts of that weather system, so all we got were some showers and some windy conditions.
The rain shut up most of the damn boomcars...always a good thing.
A few well-placed rifled slugs would shut them up a lot more permanently, but alas, that's not quite as "legal" a solution to that problem.
The wind managed to make much of the streets "self-cleaning", which means all the tossed litter was blowing everywhere else.
It was funny to see a Doritos bag blow quickly DOWN the street, only to have it return UP the street just as quickly a few minutes later. Yeah, the winds were QUITE variable in that regard.
Then again, if those "minions of mayhem", otherwise known as ghettohood filth knew a DAMN thing about treating other people and the city with some level of RESPECT, all that trash wouldn't be IN the damn street in the first place, would it?
Every time I see someone carelessly toss something from their quasi-simian hands onto the street (because that's where most of them tend to walk) or onto a lawn, it's like a giant "middle-finger-salute" TO the city and everyone paying taxes to fund these creatures and their lifestyles.
Every single law that is either broken or otherwise ignored does likewise. And I guess the city of Fort Wayne MUST be OK with being constantly FLIPPED OFF by those sucking the lifeblood (that would be money, and lots of it) FROM the working citizenry.
Obviously, the "black leadership" in the communities are fine and dandy with it all...it IS one way to take back what is "owed them", right? If you can't get it ONE way (that would be working for a living like REGULAR folk do), then by all means, TAKE it by trashing that part of town that has GIVEN you damn near everything (for free)...yeah, makes sense to me. (and we wonder why businesses up and leave...BWAHAHAhahahahaaaa)

*** Usually, something is amiss down here, as I seem to be the ONLY person calling it in, whether it's to Neighborhood Code Enforcement, Solid Waste, Animal Control or even the FWPD.
Now, NCE, Waste, and Animal Control are pretty much on the ball whenever I email them an "issue", and is resolved promptly.
Everyone else pretty much leaves YOU blowing in the wind. While there are a few police officers that "take an interest" in the goings on down here in Sector 45, they can't be everywhere all the damn time, and I understand that, but that does NOT excuse the command staff from denying the proper amount of PATROLS necessary to maintain the peace and uphold the law.
Saw one officer the other day, just cruising through the area, no lights or sirens and not even doing 30 MPH, and he/she DID NOT NOTICE that TWO cars were parked the WRONG WAY on the street (against traffic flow for that lane)...amazing. Just drove right past...astounding.
Guess they don't teach TRAFFIC PATTERNS at the academy these days?
No one cruises the alleys either, like they used to do, unless they're looking for a perp that ran or bailed on them.
And one officer said they had a concern about people "cutting" through properties...wonder why that concern just "went away"?
Parking Control is another laugh and a half...
The ONLY time you see them down here is when YOU call something in (like a Semi parked for days in a residential area - a no-no). Most of the time, they're downtown, bagging meters or posting signage for some event or another.
No patrols to see if cars are parked incorrectly, parked ON the properties improperly, or even abandoned...unless someone calls it in.
We have way too many "complaint-driven" departments, and to ME, that shouts out NO INITIATIVE.
You solve problems by TAKING the initiative...not ignoring it.
Because, as we all know (and as CWM would say), problems do NOT simple fade away if we indeed ignore them.
America was BUILT upon those who TOOK the initiative, whether it was in exploration, politics, the military, or even by entrepreneurs.
The entire Industrial Revolution was made possible by people taking the INITIATIVE.
I can't imagine what history would have been written had people sat on their damn hands...can you?
But, I CAN imagine what this city COULD become, under a different banner...one of initiative.
You never know...until you try, as the saying goes.

***Lastly today...this IS Holy Week, and tonight begins the feast of PASSOVER.
Here's the WIKI on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passover
Actually, this is a very somber story, BUT, it is also a marvelous story about FREEDOM, and the power of God.
It is a story of FAITH.
It also is a story about SACRIFICE.
And you have to admit, that it makes for some pretty good cinema!
(The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston).
So, whatever the case, and whatever faith you follow, know that THIS week means so much to so many.
Have yourselves a great week
Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay safe out there, America.